This is Volume 2 in the
series of orchestral music by Miklós Rózsa. No fewer
than four exclusive Chandos artists perform on this release: The
BBC Philharmonic Orchestra, the conductor Rumon Gamba, and soloists
Paul Watkins on cello and Jennifer Pike on violin.

Miklós Rózsa
was best known for his film music, for which he was Oscar-nominated
on thirteen separate occasions, winning three times with A Double
Life, Ben Hur, and Hitchcock’s Spellbound. Alongside his film
music, Rózsa also wrote music for the concert hall,
including some notable concertos.

The Cello Concerto, Op. 32 is
a dark, savage, and often quite brutal work. It consists of three
movements; a strong driving first movement, an introspective second
movement, and an energetic finale which brings the work to a
brilliant conclusion. The soloist is Paul Watkins. As one of
Britain’s foremost cellists, he performs regularly with the
major British orchestras and has made six appearances as concerto
soloist at the BBC Proms.

The new, exclusive Chandos
artist Jennifer Pike (BBC Young Musician of the Year in 2002) is
the featured soloist in Rózsa’s colourfully
orchestrated Variations on a Hungarian Peasant Song, Op. 4. Here
the theme is taken from a collection of Hungarian folk tunes. It is
presented very simply by solo violin, and followed by a series of
fourteen variations. These are performed without a break and
require some very expressive and virtuoso playing from the soloist.
The CD represents Jennifer Pike’s first orchestral release on
Chandos.